Ailey II in Alvin Ailey's Streams

Repertory

Streams

CHOREOGRAPHER

WORLD PREMIERE

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Brooklyn Academy of Music, 1970

AILEY II PREMIERE

Arnold Hall, Colorado Springs, 1985

RUN TIME

24 Minutes

RESTAGING

Masazumi Chaya

MUSIC

Miloslav Kabelac (“Eight Inventions, Opus 45”)*

COSTUME DESIGN

A. Christina Giannini

LIGHTING DESIGN

Chenault Spence

Streams is an abstract exploration of bodies in space, danced to a percussion score by Miloslav Kabelac. Alvin Ailey’s highly structured yet fluid compilation of solos, duets, and group choreography reflects the formal, meditative mood of Kabelac’s music. While there is no narrative, the movement and music arouse distinct thoughts and feelings, evoking images and sensations inspired by bodies of water—from a gentle brook to a turbulent ocean—that correlate to the changing tides within us. Walter Terry of The Saturday Review described Streams as "a stunning group work built chiefly on diagonal lines and evoking the title in abstract form through varying speeds, eddyings, flowings, racings, and floatings, all related to moods of jubilance, sadness, acceptance, and glee," while The New York Times wrote, “It exposes its dancers and their technique in ways I find often heroic and beautiful.” 

[Streams] is full of the careless pulse and careful design that characterize Ailey at his best.

Clive Barnes, The New York Times

A non-representational but profoundly evocative piece, Streams seemed to say something about the struggle of living at its most noble and most lucid.

Claudia Crutcher, The Washington Daily News

SEE IT LIVE

dedication

This Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater production is dedicated to Patricia and Philip Laskawy for their long-standing commitment to Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Music Credits

*By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publishers and copyright owners. 

Funders

This work was made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts – a state agency, and The Eleanor Naylor Dana Charitable Trust.